Are oak trees felled in Belovezhskaya Pushcha? A journalist learned the secrets of the forest
By Eugeny BELASIN, "Brestskiy Kurier" (The Brest Courier) newspaper, September 25, 2013
A former teacher told recently that asphalt on a Pushcha's road sank down from timber lorries carrying oak logs and there has to make an expensive repair of the road. Something similar is available in my file before. Knowing about the reserve status of Belovezhskaya Pushcha and about the doubling of the strictly protected area in connection with the recent return of European Diploma to the National Park, I raised and went to examine the situation.
I 'll be long driving a bicycle
In the village of Kamenyuki, the administrative center of the National Park, I asked the first met driver of a small truck with the emblem of some forest office about a repair of the new bypass road and the possible restriction for driving in one traffic lane. No, this guy said by using some paradoxical phrase of the Russian language. I asked about renovating something for travel. The response was that is something and somewhere in the forest.
Any transport for visitors, except for bicycle, is not allowed for self-driving in the National Park. I did not take my own bicycle, so I then rent the Park's one. I am getting a bicycle of the Belarusian production, but special one, it seems the Dutch counterparts. There are three transmissions, but one is operational. It is running nice. Tires are also hard by pumping.
I have heard near the rent ticket office window that part of the route called "Forest Mysteries" is close. Well, I think, maybe is this exactly my forest secret I am looking for? I ask why the secrets are closed. The repair is there, the road is repaired – that was the answer. Aha. Let's go.
I am going on a decent bike path. However, it turns out after one kilometer of the path that cars and even bulky buses are driving here. As to the last kind of transport, it is not able to pass it right along, without pulling in to the side of the path.
My special emphasis is focused on oak trees. Where are they cut down? Stumps, tracks...
I see a very thick felled tree. It's oak! But the fact is that the tree is rotten from the inside. It is obviously the sanitary felling. Another matter is this fact is not associated with a shield "Sanctuary Oak Forest." If there would be a nature reserve, the trees would lay after they have fallen long ago.
After a while, I found a shield with the record about a narrow-gauge railway in the past, which was used to took timber out the reserve.
The village of Lyadskie is to be soon. Isolated farms, or what? I am pondering over the origination from the word "Lyada". It means the trees rooted out to get fields. I notice a guide sign on the left. "A BIG TRAVEL" is straight and "FOREST MYSTERIES" is on the left.
Asphalt was removed after about three hundred meters and traces of addition of sand are visible. The road machinery is then – an excavator, bulldozer somehow moved down into the swamp, and further orange KamAZ trucks loaded with sand.
I asked about the cause of road works. Is it not the place for transshipment of the wood here? "No, it is just the asphalt earlier put on the dirt, so the road is floated," one of the workers says. Is timber transporting from the forest here? The worker smiled enigmatically "It was earlier transported on the narrow gauge. Is it in our times? Perhaps, perhaps... ".
I read the end date on the descriptor of the object – the 12th October this year. The length of the repair section is about a few kilometers.
A local woman near enclosures, which view opened shortly after the exit to the undamaged part of the route, was more talkative "Look for the answer at the Kamenyuki sawmill. Take a look what oak trees are there."
Owners of Pushcha's forest
I thought, let me first go to the local authorities. I supposed what if the conversation will happen successfully?
I got no hope in the office of the director of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" Alexander Bury "He is busy." OK, I am satisfied the administrator of lower rank, I say, as long as he is dealing with wood and timber.
Vasily Filimonov , head of the Department of Forest Protection and Forestry was in his office.
"Planned logging is going on in two zones of Belovezhskaya Pushcha – the Economic Activity Zone and Regulated Nature Zone," Vasily said. "We do not touch the Wilderness Protection Zone (Core zone)and Regulated Recreational Use Area. There are also sanitary cutting along roads as to prevent the fall of trees to damage someone. With regards to oak trees, they are not chopped at all. Those trees in the timber mill are of the old delivery, even before my employment. Oak logs can lie without the loss of quality both 3 and 5 years, that's such kind of wood."
"Last year I accompanied a forest defender," Mr. Filimonov continued. "So, we carried him where he wanted and no claims were against us. He even surprised that branches are not burned."
Vasily Filimonov said about the road that it has sunk somewhere from the tourist buses."Timber lorries drive at other sites, not there."
"Is it enough timber to keep running the capacity of the sawmill?", I ask. "Cutting down are planned in the management project," the office's owner said. "The mature forest is defined by aerial photography. The timber mill still has enough wood."
The sawmill
The timber gates were wide open, but it turned out very narrow for me. "Who are you? We have a strict regime object", the guard brought me back to its borders. When he learned that I need to meet the director, for some reason he brought some young guy in a paramilitary uniform. The guy was the head of the non-departmental security of the National Park Belovezhskaya Pushcha". I say, I do not need you. I need a person responsible for this factory. While he was walking, the guard three times made me show the identity card , then called back to where I came from, that means to the Director Alexander Bury . The Director accused me of cheating ("You have not been at the reception, the secretary said. You used words about wood as a cover"). So, I think that people have something to hide. Let me have a break.
After a couple of days, I did what is not forbidden by law - namely, a hiking expedition around the timber mill. I looked at the mountain of asphalt dumped in the forest. There also were the open hole in the fence or slot through which you can give boards. The hole allowed surveying rather large piles of rather thick oak logs (about a third of all stockpiled logs). The area around the village boiler was full of logs, mainly thinners. It is explicitly that the wood is from the felling after a hurricane that struck a few years ago. Spiral barbed wire fence above the timber mill were torn in two places, in the direction of the open and empty boiler. Again, is it what for, if not to steal?
Exiled for the defense of Belovezhskaya Pushcha
An unofficial forest defender, mentioned by the official guardian of the forest Vasily Filimonov, proved to be PhD and former Deputy Director on Science of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" Heorhi Kazulka, as I suspected at once.
" Yes, I went through the forest last year as an auditor of the forest certification service," Heorhi said. - There's a lot of progress that happened since the days of indiscriminate felling. Maybe the cases of illegal logging are now available, but I do not know about them."
"What's about the sawmill?" I ask. "Why do not they let me enter there?"
"It is really hard to get there," my companion is laughing. - They are afraid of journalists as the ones write and invert the information. When I was deputy director, I also got troubles from your colleagues because they are non-specialists."
"As far as I remember, Nikolai Bambiza fired you for protests against logging. Isn't it?" I specify from the interlocutor. "The former director ranked me to the category of traitors of his business," Heorhi Kazulka explained. "What's kind of business?" I ask him. "He entrusted me to make a science-based plan for logging in Belovezhskaya Pushcha." "So, organization of felling of Belovezhskaya Pushcha was his matter. Isn't it?" "It turns out that's right."
Director
I got in touch on the phone with the Director of the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha". The meeting broke for the first time. The second time, as being in the business trip, I went to the village of Lyadskie. Local boys (school students) said after a discussion of oak tree, which decorated the main village street, that "oak logs were carried with logging trucks, as much as earth trembled, but it was seven years ago."
I went to the director with this information. But he was on a business trip. We finally talked on the phone in a couple of days.
"We do not chop oak trees in recent years," Alexander Bury said. "Junks lie at the factory. No one wants to buy it. It was delivered in the past. Last year I ordered them to clean up the area in order to avoid the temptation among foresters and forest guards to "push" the healthy tree under the brand name of the old one."
Well, the trees in the photo are numerous, but the trunk cuts clearly demonstrate the long-standing presence them in stock, and also (at most of them) the presence of rot.
I asked the Director about the road. Is there a section broken by timber trucks?
Alexander Bury, already chuckling, answers that there is no forest secrets here. The section, which is on the narrow-gauge railway embankment, was asphalted over the old asphalt cover a few times, but it was not good because peat was removed from it at one time. Now workers remove the rest of peat and put the sand cushion. Length of the section is 1 kilometer and 800 meters. I put the last question "Work is worth of 23 billion Rubbles?" "Where did you get this number – it is 5 billion together with the project cost."
Well, it seems "haze" has cleared. I am walking past the gas station and past the strict entrance of the Kamenyuki timber mill. Right now a timber lorry is driving into it. It carries rather thick dry spruce logs. That's after bark beetles damaged. It seems all the information fits for the time being.
I wonder, if a turn is taking so good, why they do not employ Heorhi Kazulka after his previous dismissal? It's obvious it was done by mistake! But why are big mistakes forgiven for someone, while others have to carry their bitter lot for the righteous cause? And this is before the eyes of the people, while the people always wanted justice…
By Eugeny BELASIN, (author's photo)
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